What does it all mean? In
geopolitical terms, this is the price that the Obama administration was willing
to pay in order to get the Iran deal: Obama's
Secret Iran Strategy “Contrary to what observers have long assumed, Obama does
connect his Iran policy and his Syria policy: just as he showed deference
to Iran on the nuclear front, he has deferred to the Iranian interest in
Syria.” In humanitarian terms, it means this world is governed by
narcissistic amoral assholes of all kinds who are as comfortable as ever with
the use of people as pawns, for all the deaths and mayhem that this entails: Trapped
between airstrikes and locked gate, Syrian refugees are pawns in a wider war.

Syrian
Opposition Groups Sense U.S. Support Fading. “American-backed insurgents have long
been used to the American stance in recent years, that the United States did
not want them to actually win the war — lest a sudden toppling of Mr. Assad
lead to Islamist rule — but wanted to prevent them from losing for long enough
to pressure the government to negotiate for a political solution. Now they fear
that the United States and its allies may actually let them lose.” Well,
the support was never real to begin with. Obama achieved his goal, the Iran
Deal, and now prefers to let others do the cleanup.

Exclusive:
U.S. Allies Now Fighting CIA-Backed Rebels. “Not long ago, U.S. jets and Shia
militias worked together to battle ISIS. Today, those militias are trying to
take down American proxies in Syria.” The Obama administration was so
worried about the law of unintended consequences in Syria it managed to create
a deep quagmire that sucked in both Iraq and Syria. Just like its predecessor,
every mistake the administration committed ended up facilitating and
consolidating Iran’s regional rise. No wonder the Saudis are pissed, and
increasingly suspicious.

A
Piece of Propaganda:Why
Assad's Army Has Not Defected. This is a work of propaganda, that’s for
sure, but just in case people are willing to forgo the background of the author,
Kamal Alam is a Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in
London and a Syrian Military Analyst advising several Damascus-based
family offices, not to mention certain otherwise easy to notice facts,
let me make the following reminder: as all western intelligence agencies can
assert, nothing remains of Assad’s armies that is worth the name army: by now
we are dealing with militias, the majority of whom are composed of Alawite and
Shia recruits and mercenaries paid for by Iran. There are Sunni fighters for
sure,, but most of them are hapless recruits thrown into the fire in the face
of Al-Nusra and IS, with little support, and little faith in the fight, except
the need to survive. Neither Al-Nusra nor IS has shown any sympathy for the plight
of Sunni recruits, and they know it. So, they fight because they have no
choice: defectors are killed and captured soldiers are killed. As for the times
before the war, well, as all Syrian with a brain and the willingness to face
the truth know: the levers of power in the military and security agencies have
always been held by Alawite, and best equipped fighting units were also made of
Alawite recruits, Christians, Druzes, Shia, Ismailis and Circassians and
members of certain small Sunni clans were given preferential treatments as
well. It’s the Assad regime that instituted such sectarian game in Syria, and
anyone claiming that they have somehow respected the country’s diversity,
rather than exploit it for its own needs, is made either by a total moron, or
by propagandist.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

I am a Syrian-American Author and Blogger, and I currently work as a political analyst at Alhurra. The Delirica is a blog that relates my personal views and takes on current developments which do not necessarily reflect those espoused by any institution with which I am affiliated. My most recent publication is titled “The Irreverent Activist” and is available on Amazon.

The Delirica

Throughout the years, I have operated a variety of political, intellectual and artistic blogs in both Arabic and English. However, I am currently relying on The Delirica as my main personal online outlet for political analysis in English. All my previous online writings in English can be accessed at Ammar.World, The Daily Digest of Global Delirium and related sites. Arabic readers should refer to Hartaqah.